Speaker 1: Eleven o two Sports Talk seven out of eighth. You know,
the show was so successful last week we said, you
know what, Brian Bogasva, We're gonna put him on again
every single Wednesday at eleven o'clock.
Speaker 2: Rady's true. U oooh, by goodness.
Speaker 1: People love Brian bogusk He's on Spaceity Network, he's done
some astros radio, and he's our friend on Wednesdays at
eleven Bogie. Before we get to what's going on right now, uh,
we saw, obviously camp Smith get the announcement from Joe Aspota.
How did you find out you were getting a call
to the show? Oh?
Speaker 3: So I was a September call up, my first time.
So you know that that last day of August game,
everybody's kind of in a Triple A clubhouse looking around
like who's gonna be And I got taken out of
the game, you know, after like the fifth inning or something.
So it's like, okay, that's weird, it's probably gonna happen.
And then got called into the manager's office after the
game and he said you and you know, I don't know,
there's probably four or five of us. You guys are
all going up to Houston tomorrow morning, and.
Speaker 1: You're like, where's my girlfriend? I want her in the
room with me so I can kiss her and hug
and congratulator.
Speaker 3: Correct, Yeah, you know what they didn't do that for
me was not Oh.
Speaker 2: I hear bitterness in your voice right now. I can
guarantee you that I definitely hear it your voice.
Speaker 3: No, I, you know those things are it's it's such
a cool thing. You know. Everybody obviously that has it
happened to them, they remember it, and it's you can
share it with people even better. But no, I was
not on the camp Smith's level of let's bring everybody
in for it.
Speaker 1: So we've been kind of debating about what this move means.
Is it because it could be all the above. So
let me just throw a variety of scenarios at you.
Is it an indictment again? What they really think of
chess playing every day in right field? Is this? This
kid is so hot? We got to make sure to
give them in every opportunity to be the future right fielder.
Is it a combination of both?
Speaker 2: Is it?
Speaker 3: Hey?
Speaker 1: I want this trade with Kyle Tucker to have immediate impact.
And with that being said, bringing up one of the
guys along with Parker was asking who's going to be
one of the starters. This once again shows that me
as a general manager and Dana Brown got great value
in return for getting giving away a five to two
player like Kyle Tucker.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean the answer is probably a little bit
of everything.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But in regards to Cam individually, I think there's kind
of two distinct ways of looking at it, and it's
number one, is this what's best for the team. And
I think that's the easiest question to answer if you
watch him playing throughout the spring, if you just watch
how the competition in house played out throughout the course
of the spring, it's very easy decision to say he
gives us the best chance being our everyday right fielder.
The question that's harder to answer is is this what's
best for Cam long term? You know, is he going
to be able to get the proper development, the proper
development track and become the player that he's going to
be as quickly as as needed at the big league level.
And that's a much more difficult question to answer because
it's not necessarily a baseball question. You know, it's not
breaking down his swing and seeing how he shares against
certain types of pitching. It's a personal question. It's is
he going to be able to handle the pressure? Is
he going to be able to, you know, go through
a slump and inevitably have a level of failure at
some point during the season and do that under a
huge microscope and have a lot more people noticing and
asking about it, And can he handle that and not
have that be an impediment to him helping the team?
And that's that's just getting to know the person Cam Smith,
and I think over the course of the spring, that
was something that impressed you know, the Astros people more
than the player that they got, was the person that
they got. And you know, I think at the end
of the day, they've got to a point to where
they were comfortable saying, we are we we can push
it on this person. Not necessarily, not necessarily the player
is ready.
Speaker 1: Can you fast track learning right field when you're doing
it in a major league game? I mean, that's a
lot for him to inherit the responsibility of his young
bat in his great spring. And oh, by the way,
he's gonna have to play as much defense as he
is taking his four A beats or five plate appearances
per game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, yes and no. Yes, you can fast track
it in the organized organization and the team and the
player recognizes that it's a new position. So we're going
to go out there and we're just gonna, you know, early,
work the hell out of you and you we're going
to be out there every day and it's going to
be okay, we're going to do balls off the wall today,
We're going to be you know, fun goes down the line.
I'm gonna want you charging balls. We're just going to
work on something every single day. And he is, you know,
young enough that that's be a problem. He's going to
be able to go out there and do the work.
And I've seen it before and when Jad Martinez first
got up here, the bat was way ahead of the
defense and Dave Clark had him out there just working
him to death every day to get him ready. The
flip side of that is, at some point, certainly playing
the outfield, you just have to see live reps. You know,
balls off of a fungo are not the same as
balls off of the bat. You know, a fly ball
at three o'clock doesn't look the same as a flyball
at seven point thirty with a full stadium, So there
are going to be growing pains, There are going to
be things that can only be seen for a first
time at game speed, and you know there are going
to be times when it doesn't look great. But that's
part of betting on the person. Is can he go
out there and zoo a fly ball and Number one
put it behind him and go have a good at
bat in the bottom half of the inning and Number
two say, Okay, what was the scenario? What did I
do wrong? What do I need to do to fix it?
And then fix it the next time, not the next
ten times, And that's part of betting on the person
as much as the player.
Speaker 4: We saw Cam Smith struggle with the spin of a
ball off of a lefty bat. We saw a two
days struggle with the spin of a ball off a
righty bat. Is is there a good way to practice
that and get better at that, Brian? Or is it
just you have to be in the game Number.
Speaker 3: I mean to see it at game speed and game scenario.
It can't be simulated. You know, you can go out
there and play balls off the bat in batting practice,
but it's just it's just not quite the same. I mean,
especially when you have that last little bit of adrenaline
and you know the ball I guess what was at
Monday night that camp has played at the wall. You know,
he saw that ball going back over his head. So
his first thought is, okay, I got to get back
to the wall like that. It's really difficult to play
a ball at the wall. The first thing you have
to do is find the wall. And he had his
mindset on I'm getting back to the wall, but then
forgot about the fact that, okay, that's a righty hitting
that slice into the corner. So he got back to
the wall, and also the ball ran away from him.
So being able to juggle all those things at once
at game speed, you know, not thinking about it but
reacting to it. It takes game reps and game experience.
You know, it can be simulated to a degree, but
it's just not it.
Speaker 4: Brian bogasuge with us here on Sports Talk seven ninety
and Brian, it's kind of taken the back burner now
with jose L Twove and left field, and we talked
about it last ye last week with the learning curves
of how long this is going to take and so
so what are your expectations of both of them early
on in the field.
Speaker 3: Expect to every once in a while, I'll see something
that's like, oh man, you know something. There's going to
be mistakes, just understand that. But at the same time,
I think very quickly routine plays will become routine. And
especially when you're thinking about L two A and left field,
all of a sudden, the area of that he has
to cover gets shrunk. When you're at dyk In Park
playing left field, basically all you have to do is
play everything in front of you and if it's gonna
be over your head, just turn around and play it
off the wall. You don't have the element of going
back on balls, so it really simplifies what you have
to do. And you know, thinking about Jose out there,
his default setting is I go for it, right That's
that's how he hits. You know, when he's not comfortable hitting,
he just starts swinging when he's you know, has a
decision to make on the basis it's I'm going and
then I'll deal with the consequences. And in the outfield
that's not necessarily what your default setting should be. You
almost want to play things a little bit conservatively and
being in that short left field where look, I'm gonna
play everything in front of me, and if it's off
the wall, play it, throw it back in. It's a double,
you know, just don't turn him into triples. And once
he gets that understanding and that feeling where make the
routine plays, avoid the aster plays, it'll look fine out there.
Speaker 2: And left bogie.
Speaker 1: We spent so much time time with the outfield for
the first two weeks of our visit.
Speaker 2: Let's do this.
Speaker 1: Let's I'm gonna ask you give me two or three
storylines that you're curious about for the first month of
the season that don't involve the new left fielder and
the new right fielder.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's actually other players on the team.
Speaker 1: I know we're talking on them, but they're they're out
there for sure.
Speaker 3: I Mean, the big thing is in the bullpen, you know,
eighth inning, ninth inning. We're good, a brave hater, as
good as there is. You know, what's what's in the middle,
especially early in the season, when starters aren't going to
be pushed to go really deep into games. What's going
to happen in the seven to sixth and maybe even
fifth inning sometimes Last year, Taylor Scott had the big
breakout year, he was a huge addition. Who's going to
be that guy this year or those guys because right
now there's a lot of unproven arms and a lot
of guys, you know, trying to bounce back and maybe
take on larger roles than they have in the past.
So that's the biggest thing for me is what's going
to bridge the strength of the starting rotation and the
strength of the back of the bullpen. And the other
thing is who are going to be the guys that
take the big next step? And three guys that I'm
looking at, Number one Jeremy Panya just can he have
that big breakout offensive year? Really from a power standpoint,
can he consistently drive the ball in the air and become,
you know, a twenty five home run type guy because
he's strong enough to do it. It's just swing consistency.
I think Jan Diaz can be a monster offensively, Like
I am as bullish on him offensively as anybody. And
I think Spencer Arraghetti is going to kind of be
that hinge of the of the starting rotation. You know,
does he make the jump and become oh wow, that's
kind of top of the rotation. Type of stuff or
is he still trying to get his feet underneath him
and just be a guy who throws out solid starts,
you know, on a day to day base.
Speaker 1: It's a great point, Bogie, because I have not hidden
the fact. I don't think Ross has either. We haven't
asked you. I think this is Fromber's last year as
an astro. I think when you have no sort of
contract extension talks in spring training, that's the that's the
light going off going you know what they're gonna They're
willing to lose him because I don't want to put
in a lot of money into his piggy bank for
a long term investment. So I think we can definitely
take a look at Hunter Brown and Arragetty and look
and everyone El Blanco because we might be meeting a
ACE number one guy one year from now.
Speaker 3: No. I mean, if you just look at you know,
the last whatever it's been six or seven offseasons, They've
had guys who are you know, huge parts of the team,
get at or near free agency and then and then
they're gone. That's just kind of the way it has been.
And you know, from a player standpoint, once you get
a certain amount of track record built up, and you
get close enough to free agency, why wouldn't you go
out there and put yourself on the open market. So yeah,
it seems likely that that might be the case for Fromberg.
So who's the next guy? You know, Hunter had this
huge breakout second half last year. If he continues to
be that guy, he moves to the top of the rotation,
and then who's sliding in behind him? I mean, Arraghetti's stuff.
If you just look at the individual pitches and the
profile of the pitches, it's all nasty. If he can
put it all together and have plans of attack with
all of his pitches working off of one another, all
of a sudden you've got another top of the rotation
type of guy.
Speaker 1: Buggy gray stuff is always looking forward to seeing me
the ballpark on not to just in future.
Speaker 2: What am we gonna see you on Space City for
the first time?
Speaker 3: Tomorrow? Opening day?
Speaker 2: They bring up the heavy hitters on opening day?
Speaker 3: Huh?
Speaker 2: I like big guns, baby. Good for you. You liked
this media thing, obviously you do.
Speaker 1: I mean, did you ever envision fifteen years ago when
you were still playing this was going to be part
of your of your post baseball life.
Speaker 3: No, honestly, I never never thought about it until after
I was finished playing and the opportunity presented itself. But
I think it's just an awesome way to stay around
the game and stay involved in the game, and you know,
find a way to get your stuff out to the
ballpark every day.
Speaker 2: Sounds great, Bogie, Thanks to visit. We'll talk again next.
Speaker 3: Week, all right. Thanks.
Speaker 1: You got a Brian Bogosivic with us every Wednesday at
eleven o'clock right here on these airwaves what we call
sports Talks.
Speaker 2: Good stuff there from Bogie